A big yawn... and a washout

A one-dayer isn’t half as exciting as Twenty20, writes Akshay Sawai.

Twenty20 has done what one-dayers did to Test cricket, making the longer format of the game look like a long drag — at least for the moment. You’ll agree if you watched the India-Australia ODI on Saturday.

The Aussies did score a 300-plus with some lusty hitting. But the zing of a short thriller that we had all become used to during the world T20 championship was missing. Probably, the novelty factor was playing here. But Mugdha, 23, had another reason: “T20 doesn’t have lean periods. It offers edge-of-the-seat excitement.”

The game’s administrators have done what they could to make the 50-over-a-side format more interesting. Rules like the free-hit on every front-foot no-ball have been included but that probably is not enough.

Others like Abhinav Bhal, a 20-year-old, believe it’s early to write an obituary. “T20 is more exciting, but ODIs offer the best of both worlds,” he said. “T20 and Tests are at two extremes. One is fast, the other slow. ODIs are just right.”

Ironically, the popularity of Test cricket is at an all-time high even the players agree with that and many believe T20 will only eat into the popularity of ODIs.